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Sunday, October 31, 2010

Please make sure your children are safe tonight and please check their candy. Have fun and be safe. Happy Halloween!

Avery had fun in her witch costume all day today, but tonight I think she's going to be an Elephant for the Trick R Treating part. I'll have to see if I can get her warm enough in her witch costume and we'll go from there. It is 46 right now though and it's not quite dark yet!!

These little guys are super uber adorable!! They have so many to choose from. We received 2 Monster Factory monsters for review. We got the Todd and Doyle. They are cute

Aren't they cute? They're made of fleece so they are super soft and cuddly too. I love these little fellas. Avery likes to take them to bed with her, I'm guessing they're warm and cuddly and the perfect sleeping companion.

There are over 20 different monster families. Like, Earthlings, wildlife, wingback, sugars, and many more, you will never get bored with your Monsters!

Price: I think these little guys are pretty expensive. The 2 I received are $35 and $40. They are not very big at all. Looking at them I would guess no more than about $12 and even that is pushing it. They are very expensive. But CUTE!!

Overall: **** Price is high, other than that, no complaints!!

*Disclaimer* I received these products directly from the Company for Review. I was not paid to try out these products!*

Sugee's are so cute!! They don't even have a website yet they're so new.They are fun little girl's with lip gloss in the bottom. They are super adorable.

We received the Get Minty Wit It sugee girl. She is super cute and she has mint flavored gloss.

Super adorable. There is a string attached so you can wear it around the neck and the bottom just twists and you have gloss! Pretty neat. For very young children as the gloss turned Avery's lips blue/green so I wouldn't wear it especially out of the house, but Avery loves her Sugee girl. It's cute to see her twisting her and putting the gloss on throughout the day. My little diva!!
She's very cute with her Sugee Girl!

Sugee can be found at Toys R Us, and Specialty stores around the country.

With dozens of different designs, scents, and flavors, the fun is endless.

Price: I'm not sure, but I would hope no more than about $4.99

Overall: **** I don't like that it turns the lips, and it wasn't very Minty. But other than that, it's cute and Avery loves it!

*Disclaimer* I received these products directly from the Company for Review. I was not paid to try out these products!*

Saturday, October 30, 2010

I love candles. Everyone around here knows that. Everyone here on my blog should know that. So now that you do, let me introduce you to Flames and Wicks. They sent me a wonderful prize package to review and I'm in love.

I was sent the Apple Pie Candle, the Candy Corn Tarts, a Banana Nut Bread Sample Jar, some Spring Rain Tealights(I'm guessing, I thought they smelled like cotton), I also got Winter Wonderland Liquid Potpourri and a Simple Glass Tealight Holder

I love the smell of the Apple Pie candle. It smells yummy, I didn't like that it wasn't full all the way, and it was gone in 3 days! The tealights have a nice faint smell, again I guessed cotton, but they didn't have it on the website, so I'm guessing it was the Spring Rain. They burn pretty well. Last a few hours.

The tealight holder is simple, but I like that. It's enough to tuck a little smell in somewhere without being distracting. It's nice on our bathroom counter between our sinks.

The tarts have a funny smell to them. They smell like candy corn, but have a faint under smell, but when they burn they smell just like candy corn and yummy, we have a tart warmer and I'm so glad we did. These are lasting a LONG time, and they're so great now for fall. So yummy, and they are HUGE compared to our other tarts we have by Yankee Candle!

The Banana Nut Bread sample is YUMMY, it only lasted about 5 hours, but it was a sample, it smelled like I was baking. I make BNB often and this smelled just like it.Jon walked in the door and asked me, and I quote, "Did you eat all the banana bread? Where is it?" haha!! No It's the candle, honey.

Liquid Potpourri, I've never tried it before, but it was great. You pour it into the tart warmer and burn it, because it's liquid, once you're done you wipe it up with a paper towel and you're done and ready for a new scent. The thing I don't like about a regular tart is it doesn't pop out so you can't switch out scents. With this you can as often as you'd like.

Price: It all ranges. Their tarts are $2 for 4... $1.50 for the Candy Corn right now! This is SUPER cheap!! The Interlude Candle I got is $9 for a 22oz. The Tealights are $4-$5.50 for a 12 pk. Depends on clear plastic or aluminum.

Overall: ***** love these items. Use them often and they all smell good.

*Disclaimer* I received these products directly from the Company for Review. I was not paid to try out these products!*

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Our Dinnerware set was OLD. When we moved out of my mother's house she gave us the old set that was in their camper. My camper growing up. It was this Ugly white with green, blue and pink flowers around the rim From 1990 (the year I was born). We also had 1 set from big lots with blue and white stripes on it. Well I contacted Oneida and they told me they could let me review the Culinaria Line of dishes. I quickly obliged and was sent the beautiful Tarragon color.

I love this set. We have donated my mother's set of 8 and kept our blue and white set of 4 and kept this set of 4 (obviously) so we have 2 different sets, but 4 is not enough for a family of 3.

This set came with 4 dinner plates, 4 salad plates, 4 cups, and 4 bowls. I love this set!!

The Culinaria line has some BEAUTIFUL colors. They have 8 different colors and they are all beautiful.

These have a 3 yr chip warranty on them. Although I haven't dropped them to see if they'd chip, with a 3 yr chip warranty, I'm guessing they wouldn't chip easily.

Overall we're happy with them and the color. They are nice and heavy duty.

Price: A set of 4, that's 16 pieces is on sale for $60. That's so generous!!! I mean really. We could buy another set of 16 and get rid of our other set which we just might do. This set originally goes for $160. I think we'll get a different color next time so we won't be totally matchy matchy!

I wish I would've found wraps when Avery was little. MUCH more little. I could've got great use out of them. She had acid reflux and colic. It would've helped the reflux by sitting her straight up as opposed to the incline of the swing or car seat and It would've helped the colic by giving her more attention with me holding her. She had colic until she was 4.5 months old.That was a long time to be holding her and I wish I had a wrap to my rescue. I had no idea they even existed.
I wish MetroMamma had been there for me back in the middle of 2007.
But they hold babies up to 38 pounds and Avery is only 29. Although she is a little BIG for it in general, But I was able to get her in it and walk around the house with her comfortably in there for 2 hours. She didn't like it though because she couldn't run off and play, but it was long enough for me to get a good review on it.

It's hard to tell, but it is the San Francisco Chocolate with the Peace Bling!

I love the Peace, It's very gender neutral and it can mean so much. It seems to be very well put on the wrap. It's very secure.

Although I had never worn or tried on a wrap before, I knew how to tie them. It was a little bit hard because the tails get all caught up around your ankles while you're trying. I think they were a LITTLE too long, when you're done and they're behind your back then I go around 2 more times to get them tied. I think they should offer different lengths for different size people. Because they were about 10" too long for me!

Other than that it went on great, was very easy to wrap. I also tried this wrap out with one of Avery's dolls. She's about 5 pounds and the size of a newborn. I wore it for 8+ hours and it was just fine. I did dishes, cooked dinner, vacuumed, cleaned the whole kitchen, I didn't even notice it was there. It was that great.

MetroMamma offers the Bling collection and a cheaper standard collection without rhinestones. In a lot of different colors too.

Price: The Bling that I received (well all Bling) is $130. This is a bit pricey compared to others, I think it's worth it, but have nothing to compare it too. But think, You'll use it for probably 18 months or so, then probably with a SECOND child, or you could sell it for probably half your money back!! So I think it's worth it.

The regular version runs for $80! Which again you could sell and probably get $35-$40 out of it as long as it's in good condition.

Overall: ***** I think this is a good wrap. I'll have to have my friend try it out and let me know what she thinks about it with her 8 week old.

*Disclaimer* I received these products directly from the Company for Review. I was not paid to try out these products!*

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

This website is pretty awesome! They have a HUGE selection of items. Jon hardly ever gets anything for review, so he asked if he could get something this time. I quickly told him yes, and he chose what he wanted. He's a larger man so he was happy to see that Sticky Jewelry carried bracelets in his size of an 8.5" they are all 8" and never fit him.
He chose the beautiful Brushed Titanium Bracelet. He decided to put the Guitar on the front of it and the words Country Is My Rock on the back. He really wants to get into country music and he LOVES that saying, so that's what the bracelet says

I could not get the words to show up!!

Overall we're happy with the bracelet though, It's very durable as it is titanium and It came out just the way he wanted it too. He loves it and wears it all the time. Almost daily.

Because he's so busy and never has time for anything I haven't gotten anything out of him about it yet, so there's not much of a review for this one.

I thought the quality was great, it looks great and is a good price too!

Sticky Jewelry has some beautiful high quality stuff. They have women's bracelets, men's bracelets, men's and women's necklaces, customized jewelry, medical ID jewelry and then some. So much to choose from and all great quality!

I love this for myself and it's engraveable

Price: At $55 for this bracelet, I think this is very generous. We have quoted titanium bracelets at as much as $180 before NOT personalized and engraved, so I'm very happy with this price.

Overall: ***** I guess. Haven't gotten much out of him.

*Disclaimer* I received these products directly from the Company for Review. I was not paid to try out these products!*

You all know by now how much I love CSN Stores. I don't think I could review something from every category on their website. There are so many to choose from and so many items to choose from, I think it would take FOREVER to get one item from each category on there.
I was lucky enough to score 3 new things from CSN stores!! I'm so happy with them
I received the George Foreman Contemporary Grill, the Proctor Silex Sandwich Maker and the Lace and Trace Shapes. I had $75 to spend, so I ended up spending about $4 total (I think) Out of my pocket! I wasn't going to get the toy, but figured I may as well use up the certificate. So I did.

It's not huge by any means, but it's enough for 4 small burgers, or 2 steaks. It's plenty big enough for just the 3 of us. It comes with 2 drip trays and 2 scrapers.Those scrapers are pretty neat because they fit in the grid perfectly!

Jon has been begging me forever for a Sandwich Maker. He had one a long time ago when he was in Florida and when he moved he left it behind. So he got his Sandwich maker probably almost 2 months ago now and he's used it ONCE. I've made Avery and I sandwiches on it though!! YUM, Ham and Cheese sandwich is perfect on this, as it a grilled cheese, it makes them in just a couple minutes. No flipping or anything, it's just done!

The George Formean has been great. We've had 4 nights of burgers on it already. It also cooks up onions as well. It's been great!

Avery is loving her Lace and Trace shapes, it's gotten quite a bit of use. She's trying to figure it all out. She plays for hours with it, which is surprising because she normally doesn't play with toys at all.

Price: The Grill is $40, the Lace and Trace is $10 and the Sandwich maker is $18. The certificate covered part of my shipping as well.

Overall: ***** love CSN stores and will continue to love them.

*Disclaimer* I received these products directly from the Company for Review. I was not paid to try out these products!*

Sunday, October 24, 2010

In trying to eat healthier, we have been eating more and more organic food. It's so much better for you. When I contacted Newman's Own Organics I had no idea what I was in for. They sent me SO MUCH stuff. I was so delighted to open that box and find what I did.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

I wished I would've known about babywearing when Avery was born. I had no idea the option was there. Jon doesn't believe in the AP way of life, so I'm sure he wouldn't have let me anyway, However, with the next one I will wear my baby and He won't say anything about it.

I will turn to SnuggyBaby when I need another sling or wrap.

I was sent the lovely White Chocolate Swirl Linen Ring Sling

I love this sling. It already has the rings connected for you, You just drape it over your shoulder, put the long end through the rings and put baby in. It is really simple. But if you can't figure it out they have a DVD included in every package! It shows you the different wearing styles and how to do every single one!

SnuggyBaby carries so many different items. She has the Slings, She also has Wraps, as well as Doll Slings for your child, and lastly she carries WetBags. With 39 slings, and 46 wetbags this mama is BUSY!

Her stuff is very well quality done. This sling will never break! That much I know for sure. Because it's Linen it breathes real easily. While Avery's in it I can't even tell she's in it. I feel like It's not even there. It is really easy to use and I use Avery with a hip hold. It's super easy to figure out and from taking out of package and watching the DVD to on, was less than 10 minutes. Now I can get Avery in it in just 2 minutes. It is that easy.

The DVD has instructions for both the Wraps and Slings on it, so it's easy to figure out.

Above All, I LOVE this sling. It is very comfortable, the shoulder is pleated so the weight is distributed evenly. I heard from people that a wrap is best because it's across both shoulders and in a sling the child will feel heavy. Very untrue. I don't notice a difference. It doesn't dig in to my shoulder and it's super comfortable!

Her Slings hold up to about 35 pounds. She says as long as you're comfortable holding you're child, they can probably be worn in the sling!

Price: The Linen Slings are $85. This is pretty competitive they are the same price everywhere. Her Prestige line is $95. They have the pattern all along the sling. And she also has cheaper sold color slings, they are $79.

Her WetBags are $19 for a small, $29 for a large and $49 for a hanging. Her Doll Slings are $14 at most and her Wraps are $52. These a little more than regular wraps, but I'm sure they're worth it! All her prices are generous!

Overall: ***** Love this sling and would recommend it to anybody!

FOR 10% OFF YOUR ORDER ENTER CODE: HeatherandAvery

*Disclaimer* I received these products directly from the Company for Review. I was not paid to try out these products!*

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

I have reviewed Zevia in the past and I still can't get over how good it is. I don't like diet soda, because it tastes so fake. But Zevia which is sweetened with Stevia is so much different, it tastes real, not fake
We received a mixed 6 pack of Zevia this time for review. My favorite is still the Black Cherry!!

We got one of each but the twist

Love them all. I don't like regular root beer or dr. pepper, but I loved theirs, Both of them! In fact I drank all 6 of these in 3 days. They were that good!! Love Zevia, can't get any better, it's fake sweetener so they don't pack on pounds like regular soda, and they're just good all around!

Oprah's Magazine is featuring Zevia in their September edition of O-List. Oprah says,

"You may try this Stevia-sweetened soda because it contains no calories, no sugar, no aftertaste, no artificial anything, but you'll stick with it because it's delicious."

Price: Case of 24 is $23.99 So $1 a can, not bad at all. You pay that at a machine. You can get all one flavor or a mix of flavors.

Overall: Yet again another *****

*Disclaimer* I received these products directly from the Company for Review. I was not paid to try out these products!*

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Sunday night at around 9 my throat starting hurting a little bit. I didn't think much of it, just that maybe I was talking too much (nothing new there) Then through the night I was waking up and feeling sicker, my nose was congested and my throat was more sore. I woke up yesterday morning and I felt like I swallowed glass, it hurt that bad. I had aches and chills. As I went through the day my throat started feeling much better. Last night I went to bed at 1 I didn't fall asleep until at least 3:30. Last I saw the clock it was 3:20. I was waking up every 15 minutes and I was having a lot of trouble sleeping. I propped my head on a second pillow last night so I could sleep better with my nose. Well I pulled that out at 3:20. So then I fell right asleep.

Woke up this morning feeling a little better, but about the same. Very congested, headaches, chills, sore throat, tired, burning feeling in nose and throat. So I thought Flu or Cold, I have all symptoms of a cold, and I have a lot of symptoms of flu except Fever, I do not have a fever. I woke up this morning and it was 98.4 twice.
I don't know what it is, but because of my aches yesterday, plus chills I'm thinking Flu, and that I'm lucky with no fever. I'm not all cramped up on the couch feeling sorry for myself, It's not that bad, I made dinner tonight. Granted I'm not cleaning the house, but it's only because I have an excuse. In all reality today I feel fine!

I've been drinking LOTS of green tea with honey, chicken noodle soup, orange juice, loading up on vitamin c and I took Robitussin night last night to help me sleep (that didn't work) so I'm doing everything right, Let's hope this is over with by the end of this weekend!

Avery has a cold. She is just stuffy/runny and that's about it. Hasn't complained of anything, she even skipped her nap yesterday, so she's not more tired. She's acting normal besides her nose.

A fun new toy for children to play with is Petcakes Toys. It takes 2 of the cutest things in the world, puppies and cupcakes, and combines them into one fun toy!!

We received 4 adorable toys!

We were send the Blueberry Buddy (pug), Coco Coconut (poodle), Randy Candy (not sure, brown guy), and Twinkle Sprinkles (basset hound). We love them all. They are so cute in there little cupcake holders. The dogs are adorable in themselves. Look at that pug. We have a pug so Avery loves him!!!!

I thought these were fun. Avery loves stuffed animals and that's mainly all she plays with, so she loved these little guys. They sit on top of her toybox every day and watch her sleep (as she tells me). So I'm guessing she's getting an imagination with them and I like that. She has fun and they are cute and fun.

Well Made™ Toy Manufacturing Corporation, introduces PetCakes™, a new collectible plush pet line that will be a sweet treat for children ages 3 & up. Each PetCakes animal features a "frosting" hat, comes nestled in its own cupcake wrapper and has its own whimsical backstory. At first look, children will see a delicious cupcake but will then be surprised by the pet they find snuggled inside! Combining sweet faces and cuddly plush with a clever cupcake theme, PetCakes are collectible and provide hours of open-ended imaginative play. PetCakes make perfect gifts for a special friend and for pet lovers. They are ideal for birthday party favors, stocking stuffers and as rewards for good grades. Most of all, PetCakes deliver the kind of fun kids eat up!

Price: They will be available at Toys R Us for $13.99 each. This is a decent price!

Overall: *****

*Disclaimer* I received these products directly from the Company for Review. I was not paid to try out these products!*

Monday, October 18, 2010

It's a new template. I found it SUPER CUTE on leeloublogs.blogspot.com I think it's super adorable. I know it's early, but it wasn't worth switching it for fall and then again for winter, so at least now I don't have to change it until February or so! Let me know what you think.

We've all heard of the brand. They have hair products for all!They also have Footbaths and Hair trimmers.
I received the Infiniti Pro Hair Dryer. It's an 1875 watt and I'm generally happy with it.

First of all, I love the color. Orange is awesome and I can easily find it if it's at the bottom of my drawer.

Secondly, this dryer replaced an older Conair 1875 watt dryer. I loved that thing. It was small but powerful. We got it at Target for $20 and it lasted us 3 years. In fact it still works. Thing was great!! This is more powerful and because of that it knots my hair up faster. When my hair is done being dried it needs to be brushed, with the old dryer that didn't need to happen. I rotate between my dryers now and I do like this one. I just need to take that extra step in brushing.

Also for them both being an 1875, I don't know how it's possible, but this dryer takes me about 5 minutes longer... So I'm not sure why. I don't use diffusers that often, but I do like these, they give me more of a direct dry then all over the place. They do cut down the time a bit as well since you're not wasting air blowing behind and in front of you.

This dryer has 2 settings, high, low off speed and warm, hot, cool temps and it also has a cold button. So there are a lot of options

Another thing I liked about my old one, is it folded up. The handle flipped right under the main part and then I wrapped the cord up, so it took a LOT less space in my drawer than this one does. But I needed a change and I think this was the right step.

Here is my old dryer Conair 157P and I loved it

Conair has so many items for so many different tastes and I like that in a company. I don't like when a company specializes in just one type of product. I like Conair!

Price: The Dryer I received is $39.99 it's nice and worth it!

Overall: ***** Love this dryer

*Disclaimer* I received these products directly from the Company for Review. I was not paid to try out these products!*

I reviewed a skirt from Bump2Baby a while back. That same owner owns Slingpea. She offered to send me a sling and I stated that Avery was 3 and We couldn't use it, but then I suggested a friend of mine who was due in about a week. She said she would love to send me one for my friend. She had my friend pick out a print and the size she needed and she'd send it my way. My friend chose the Hibiscus Hula.

We know he's not quite in there right, he's not used to being worn like that and he was really trying to push away, but we KNOW it's not right!!

Here is what she had to say about the sling.

"I loved the pattern of the sling first off. The colors were very bold and beautiful. The directions were easy to follow, especially if you are somewhat familiar with baby carriers. I personally did not care for the sling because of my shape and body build. Since I am such a busty girl, I have a very difficult time wearing my baby without either smothering him or feeling very unstable. I actually prefer a more giving material that my son could push himself a little away from me to make himself comfortable. I am sure if I can lose the weight or reduce my bust size the sling would be a great help to my daily schedule."

I think this sling will be great for her when he's about 6-8 months old and she can wear him in a hip hold. I'm sure that will work out for her. She also has a 2 1/2 yr old at home and I'm sure this would be great for her chasing him around!

Price: The slings are $34.95 with FREE shipping! You can't beat that. The price is competitive and the free shipping makes it all worth it!

DISCOUNT CODE: AVERY15 WILL GIVE YOU 15% OFF

*Disclaimer* I received these products directly from the Company for Review. I was not paid to try out these products!*

Friday, October 15, 2010

A shop specializing in Nature and Science. You can't go wrong there. Children are always asking science questions, it is indeed the most interesting subject. I contacted Nature Pavilion and I knew that what they would send would be great. They decided to send us the Butterfly Bungalow. It is great. We got it and it also came along with a coupon to get 3 larvae in the mail.

Here is the Bungalow

So online, I went to the website and used my coupon code and paid $3 handling for the caterpillar larvae. It was so cool to get them in the mail. We were looking at them real good an then Avery dropped them to the floor... Uh Oh I thought, they wouldn't make it!

Look how little they are

I took off the outer label and this is a few days later already

About 8 days old

It said they would cocoon at about 7-10 days. I think they all cocooned on the 9th or 10th day

Here is the first one in the middle of a cocoon

Once they all cocoon, then you open the lid, grab the paper disk they're attached to and move it and pin it to the bungalow inside. This was neat, but a little scary, what if I dropped them, what if one fell etc. It was a little nerve racking

After about 7 days in the cocoon they will hatch. Nature Pavilion guarantees a 66% hatch rate. So at least 2 of ours would hatch!

There was one lovely butterfly

That first one hatched on a Sunday night, The second one hatched in the middle of the night on Sunday/Monday and the third one hatched Monday morning, we caught this one hatching, but it's hard to make out.

The guy here ALL the way on the right, is the one that was hatching. His wings are limp because they're wet

Then I reached in there and grabbed the disk once they were all flying around

The empty cocoons

Now, you are supposed to let them go after a few days, but it is in the 50s here and I know they wouldn't survive. So we have decided to keep them in the house in their bungalow. Every 2 days I refresh their food, It's just sugar water on paper towel so they can suck it off there and we'll see how long they live. Their life span in the wild is 2-4 weeks and they never live more than 4, so we'll see. It's been almost 2 weeks now (Sunday/Monday will be 2)

So far they are doing good. We all enjoyed the process and Avery has as well. She thought it was interested how they could change so much and so did I. Watching how fast the larvae grew was insane. They grew so fast and so large. It was quite shocking. And then to think how they go from that to a butterfly with wings, legs, antennae etc. It is amazing!

I think they are beautiful too. I think the bottom of their wings is brown so they can blend into nature. But I love how beautiful the wings are once they open them. Gorgeous and orange.

I wondered what the red was once they hatched, but I read it's meconium poop. It looked like blood, it's all over the cage too, but it says you can just wipe it out and clean it that way.

The bottom is not waterproof like I thought it would be. The red leaked through to the counter and I placed paper towel under there, once every 4 days I change that out because it gets all wet from the paper towels. Their poop is now clear from the sugar water they're drinking.

Price: The Bungalow is $14.99. The first set of larvae is $3 handling, after that you can get replacements over and over again and they are $15 and you can buy them Here

Overall: ***** this was an awesome experience and I know we will do it again.